If this is January, then it must be time to revive the annual debate about whether Michelle Wie should be playing against men in a PGA Tour event.

New year, same issue.

The difference this time is that it isn't just Fred Funk doing the questioning and, after she's missed six cuts on the PGA Tour, never has the topic been more ripe for discussion.

As such, Wie's performance in next week's Sony Open in Hawai'i will now carry even more import. Not that it was likely the 17-year-old would tee off without this enduring controversy at her Nike-clad heels.

At Kapalua, where play in the Mercedes-Benz Championship begins tomorrow, defending champion Stuart Appleby reignited the issue, saying, "You know, I think that she's had a good opportunity. I think she came five years too early to try to play the men's tour. I think she should really just let it go for now, come back when she's accomplished at a game that's more comparable to someone like Annika (Sorenstam). Annika did her thing."

Appleby said, "She (Wie) is just not ready for it. She's certainly not proving anything except that she can't play with the men at her level now."

Three years ago, in Wie's initial venture into a PGA tournament, there wasn't much Appleby could have said. In 2004, as a 14-year-old high school freshman, Wie shot the same even-par, two-day, 140 at Waialae Country Club that Appleby did, both of them missing the cut by one stroke. It was the same score as Chad Campbell, Jim Furyk and Jeff Maggert.

With the lowest round (68) by a female in a PGA event, she matched or bettered 62 professionals and it seemed just a matter of time until she achieved a breakthrough, joining Babe Zaharias as the only females to make the cut on the PGA Tour.

Unfortunately, that time has yet to come. She has missed the cut in 11 of 12 men's events, the lone exception last year's Asian Tour's SK Telecom Open, where she finished deep in the pack.

Not that it has dimmed her appeal even the slightest. She was the star of glossy ads this Christmas and will still command larger galleries and more media coverage than Appleby — or anybody else — at Waialae. Hence a standing sponsor's exemption.

"A couple of times, it's nice, it's interesting but now it's getting to the stage where she'll get criticized too much," Appleby said, "and she needs to pull the plug and come back when she's 20, 25 (years old)."

Or, she could make the cut, grab a piece of history and make the whole controversy moot.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.